Only 15% Of Californians Can Afford to Buy a Home, Continuing Decline

According to the latest quarterly analysis from the California Association of Realtors, only 15% of Californians can afford to purchase the median-priced home, a decline of 1 percentage point from the quarter before and 3 percentage points from the year before. California homes are now the least affordable they've been since the peak of the housing market in 2007 before the Great Recession. The analysis found that to afford the median $843,600 California single-family home, a household requires a minimum annual income of $221,200. The only counties where more than 35% of residents could afford to buy a single family home were in the far north of the state — in Lassen, Tehama and Shasta counties.